Top 25 Cities Where Millennials Are Moving

June 13, 2017 3:15 PMBy Chuck Taylor

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

While places like New York and Los Angeles continue to attract many millennials, research from the Urban Land Institute shows that smaller cities, from Virginia Beach, VA, to Riverside, CA, are actually seeing the most relative growth in ther population of 25-to-34-year-olds.

Of the 50 metro areas analyzed, most urban centers saw an increase in millennials from 2010 to 2015, while 11 cities saw a decline. New York City had the greatest increase in the total number of millennials, with 29,774 added from 2010 to 2015. But that only represented a 2.5% uptick, placing New York at the bottom of the list below.

Rank/

change in millennials 2010-2015 pct/#

1

Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC

16.4%

7,034

2

Richmond, VA

14.9%

5,176

3

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

11.7%

1,014

4

Memphis, TN-MS-AR

9.5%

1,714

5

New Orleans-Metairie, LA

8.5%

5,199

6

Austin-Round Rock, TX

6.6%

4,523

7

Pittsburgh, PA

6.6%

4,177

8

Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD

6.5%

7,740

9

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

6.5%

15,549

10

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL

6.4%

9,633

11

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD

6.2%

14,383

12

Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY

6.0%

1,881

13

San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX

5.4%

3,665

14

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

5.2%

4,242

15

Salt Lake City, UT

4.8%

1,983

16

Raleigh, NC

4.2%

677

17

Jacksonville, FL

4.0%

1,112

18

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

4.0%

1,372

19

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX

3.9%

5,905

20

Providence-Warwick, RI-MA

3.8%

2,355

21

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL

3.6%

2,171

22

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

3.4%

7,289

23

Columbus, OH

3.2%

1,606

24

Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV

2.9%

2,372

25

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA

2.5%

29,774

Source: Urban Land Institute

Chuck Taylor

My radio career began right here in Connecticut when I started Reporting on the stock car races at the now defunct Danbury Fair Race-arena, at the age of 14. After High School, I attempted to enter into the stressful world of air-traffic contr...